Visions of bioeconomy and discourses on agricultural development – A comparative analysis with a focus on Tanzania

The paper analyses the interconnections of the debates on bioeconomy and agricultural development. It is based on the question whether the three visions of bioeconomy following Bugge et al. (2016) and the three discourses on agricultural development Aminzade et al. (2018) identified follow similar claims and whether they are based on similar human nature relationships. Some materials are taken from a case study of the situation in Tanzania. I studied similarities and differences by the means of an analysis based on the theoretical background of Dryzek and a discourse analysis and found that there is at least one matching counterpart of both debates missing. On the one hand, there is a bio-technological coined vision of bioeconomy which resembles the Tanzanian dominant domestic discourse on agricultural development as well as a bio-resource coined vision of bioeconomy resembling the global discourse on agricultural development in Tanzania. Their supporters follow similar claims and share similar perspectives. However, on the other hand, there are two subdominant positions which are not as similar as one might suppose. The bio-ecological coined vision of bioeconomy and the subordinate domestic discourse on agricultural development in Tanzania show differences claim- and contentwise. Whereas the subordinate domestic discourse of agricultural development includes three different types of human-nature relationships, the bio-ecology vision of bioeconomy cannot be analyzed in such a detailed way because it only exists implicitly. For now, it corresponds one of the subordinate discourse's types so the other two types are lacking their counterparts which could result in a misconception between actors of the Global North and the Global South. This could reinforce existing global inequalities which would contradict the concept of Sustainable Development.